Talk of a T-Mobile “anytime upgrade” club has been around for a few months now and it is looking like an announcement may be coming sooner rather than later. The carrier hasn’t said anything to confirm this, however speculation comes by way of an advertisement that recently ran in the Wall Street Journal. The ad was talking about upgrade eligibility.
Specifically, T-Mobile cited a WSJ article from when AT&T extended the upgrade eligibility requirement out to 24 months. And while T-Mobile called out AT&T on this matter, we should also make it clear that Verizon Wireless recently did the same thing. That said, the T-Mobile advertisement then went on to offer the following;
“AT&T’s big news: Now you get to wait even longer. Wait, what?”
This brings us to the point of the “anytime upgrade” club announcement coming sooner rather than later. We had already known that T-Mobile had an event planned for this Wednesday. On top of that earlier knowledge, the carrier also concluded that advertisement with a mention about how “this wednesday, see how your long wait can end.” Seems like they are suggesting anytime upgrades.
Well, anytime may be a bit generous given we have yet to see all the details. What we do know on the topic is that previous talk suggested this program would launch with a “very small” membership fee and the ability to upgrade two times per year. It was also said that customers will need to have insurance on their handsets. There wasn’t any mention about whether the insurance would be included as part of that membership fee or if that would be a separate add-on.
Otherwise, adding additional details on the upgrade club and we look back to a survey the carrier ran with select users earlier in the year. That survey was done in February and included questions asking how often they currently upgrade/buy new phones and if they would be interested in trading in a current device next time they upgrade. The survey also touched on the fee asking what the maximum the customer would be willing to pay (with options for $2, $5, $10 and $12 per month).
VIA: TmoNews
Give. me. this.
This is such an awesome idea. I think they could make money off of maybe having an exchange program like used videogames. That’s probably why they are requiring the insurance.
I thought that upgrades came anytime now if you just returned your phone or paid off what you didn’t pay…